Abstract Structural investigations and U–Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) dating of rocks from the southwestern Central Zone of the Damara Belt, Namibia, reveal that a major SE-verging deformation event (D2) occurred at between 520 and 508 Ma. During D2, SE-verging simple shear and NE–SW pure shear extension in a constrictional stress field produced recumbent, south- to SE-verging, kilometre-scale folds and ductile shear zones, a NE–SW extensional lineation and conjugate shear bands, and was coeval with granitoid emplacement and high-grade metamorphism. The timing of this event is constrained by anatectic leucosomes in D2 shear zones (511±18 Ma) and extensional shear bands (508.4±8.7 Ma) as well as by syntectonic grey granites (520.4±4.2 Ma), and is similar to ages for high-grade metamorphism in the Central Zone. An upright folding event (D3) occurred at c . 508 Ma, resulting in the formation of basement-cored fold interference domes. The timing of deformation and metamorphism at 520–508 Ma in the mid-crustal SW Central Zone contrasts with ages of 560–540 Ma for shallow crustal NW-verging folding and thrusting elsewhere in the Central Zone that was concomitant with voluminous magmatism. This magmatism led to metamorphism and anatexis of the basement and the emplacement of anatectic red granites at 539±17 to 535.6±7.2 Ma, which contain 1013±21 Ma inherited zircons. The Central Zone therefore contains a record of crustal thickening, heating of the mid-crust, exhumation and orogen-parallel extension over the life of an orogen.

Abstract The Rössing South uranium deposit in Namibia is one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the world and is viewed by many industry participants as the most significant global uranium discovery in the present cycle. Current resources total 121,000 metric tons (t) of uranium oxide, and further exploration is likely to substantially increase the resource inventory. Since its discovery in early 2008, approximately 200,000 m of resource drilling has been completed through January 2010, principally on the Rössing South zones 1 and 2. Further zones of uranium mineralization have been intersected, and these await sufficient drilling to warrant resource estimation. The Rössing South deposit is located approximately 7 km directly south of the Rössing uranium deposit and is separated from it by the Khan River Canyon. The Rössing deposit is the only mining operation currently exploiting the uranium-bearing leucogranites of the Namibian Erongo region uranium province and has been in continuous production since 1976. It produces approximately 7 percent of the annual global supply of uranium oxide. Rössing South shares many geologic characteristics with the Rössing deposit, although it is located on the opposite limb of the regional Kuiseb syncline. The overall in situ grade of the Rössing South uranium mineralization, as it is currently defined, is approximately 480 ppm U 3 O 8 , which is about 25 percent higher than historically mined grades at the Rössing deposit (i.e., ~350-400 ppm U 3 O 8 ) The Rössing South discovery is currently the subject of a feasibility study that has the objective of establishing the viability of a potential globally significant mining operation based on the known uranium resources of zones 1 and 2.